ShirleyWalker.cinemusic.net
Discography

Promotional release - SWCD 008

01. Main Title 2:30
02. Willard at Dad's Picture 0:49
03. Willard Checks Trap 0:52
04. Mr. Martin 1:08
05. Socrates-Goodnight 2:11
06. Willard's Hatred Builds 1:12
07. Big Ben-Training Montage 1:50
08. The Tire Mission 1:33
09. Total Tire Recall 3:20
10. Not the Puppy 1:05
11. Willard's Revenge 0:44
12. Follow Ben 1:33
13. Ben How Could You 1:11
14. My Only Friend 1:19
15. End Credits 2:35
16. Willard Closes Hole 1:27
17. Splinters 0:55
18. What Can We Do 1:48
19. That's Not A Mouse, Rats 4:06
20. We Need to Go 6:06
21. Willard's Demise 0:56
22. He's Back 0:19
23. Socrates #2 0:48

Music Composed and Conducted by Shirley Walker
Orchestrated by Larry Rench, Bruce Babcock, Ian Walker
Concert Master: Bruce Dukov
Recorded by Robert Fernandez at the Warner Bros. Eastwood Scoring Stage in Burbank, CA, with thanks to Dan Chavez, Ryan Robinson, Greg Dennen and Jamie Olivera
Accordions: Frank Marocco, Liz Finch, Nick Perito, John Torcello, Ed Vodicka and Dart Zubis
Music Preperation: Hayen Music Copying Service
Music Editor: Tom Milano
Contractor: Debbi Datz-Pyle
Auricle Orchestral Timings: Richard Grant

Special thanks to: James Wong, Glen Morgan, Paul Broucek, Bob Bowen, Alan DerMarderosian, Alison Freebairn-Smith, Mako Sujishi, Don Walker and Vasi Vangelos.

Mastering: Dough Schwartz, Mulholland Music

The original Willard was a dead-serious affair that featured a score by Alex North; Morgan and Wong's remake has added fiendish black humor, and Morgan specifically asked Walker to avoid watching the original film. The composer found the remake an inspiring project. "It's like an Alfred Hitchcock movie," she says. "Glover's performance is over-the-top; there was so much to work from. Also, most of the story is tolv visually; I would say that 60 to 80 percent of the movie is without dialogue. There's not a single gunshot, airplane, fire, explosion -- it's psychological and dark, but with Glen's and Jim's sense of humor. So, it's got that nice twist to it."

Walker added accordions to her orchestra to help depict the lead character's personality. "We wanted to have some kind of nerd element to the music that was reflecting the social ineptitude ofWillard," she says. "But, I've always been fascinated by the accordion as a reed instrument and I've always wanted to have one in the reed section of the orchestra; we seated them right there so that the two sections were really together. It has all those sounds that the clarinets and bassoons and the double-reeds, especially, have. You hear the music going along with him, and it's pretty present in the first couple of cues; it's just this weird sound you hear. I don't know that anyone listening would say, 'Oh, is that an accordion?' But, they're out of tune -- accordions are difficult to tune -- and to have six of them playing together, you get this wonderful spread of intonations. That combined with the woodwinds is just a very rich color."

Walker says she got away from the idea of applying a single theme to individual characters in her score. "I have a theme that was kind of based on Willard: there was a low counter-melody bass motion that was the disturbed Willard, and there was a top melody that was for the Socraters part of Willard's personality -- it wasn't just for Willard or Socrates but, for the parts in both of their natures that the brought out in each other," she explains. "That allowed me to use that theme either for Willard or Socrates and then bring it around at the end in a more demented fashion. The music for Mr. Martin (Willard's sadistic boss) has these weird intervals in it, and he brings out these sadistic, dominating characteristics in Willard. To have a theme that starts out with one character, but it's really about a part of who he is, and then as the other character morphs that becomes part of him as well -- that was an evolution I'd never really attempted in a score before. We also had a stinger motif for the Ben rat, the big rat -- and, so the whole score was derived from these elements." - Jeff Bond, excerpted from Film Score Monthly, Vol 8, Number 2.




Final Destination 2WillardBatman BeyondEscape From L.A.Batman Mask Of The PhantasmMemoirs of An Invisible Man


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